


Bump in the Night

by 1771



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe- Castlevania (Netflix), Gen, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21609094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1771/pseuds/1771
Summary: “I pay my debts,” Andrew told the man. “The town is coming for you all tonight. You need to leave before sundown.” The clan of speakers had been helpful, and Andrew was practically an expert on being run out of towns at this point.“We can take care of ourselves,” the man, Wymack, assures him.“Against the whole city? You don’t stand a chance unless you get out of here.”“We can’t leave,” Wymack announced. “One of our number left three days ago and hasn’t returned. We can’t go on without him.”“You would sacrifice all of your people for one man?” Andrew challenged. “He was probably caught by the good people of Gresit in a back alley and stabbed. You’re wasting time.”
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Bump in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off the Netflix Castlevania show, not the games! Some familiarity with the show might be helpful, as I don’t do a lot of exposition in this chapter, and a lot of this first one is skipping between beats of episodes 2-4 of the show. 
> 
> there is some content in this first chapter involving Castlevania’s Roma analog, the Speakers, re: them being unwelcome in a town and blamed for misfortunes, with references to the violence that the townspeople wish on them. Nothing explicit, but it is a fairly large plot point.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> edit: smh I got the city name wrong because i hadn’t watched the show in a year. going to edit the chapter and change the title and summary to reflect this... can’t believe i messed this up when there are only two city names lmao. No plot changes this is just for my own peace of mind

“I pay my debts,” Andrew told the man. “The town is coming for you all tonight. You need to leave before sundown.” The clan of speakers had been helpful, and Andrew was practically an expert on being run out of towns at this point.

“We can take care of ourselves,” the man, Wymack, assures him. 

“Against the whole city? You don’t stand a chance unless you get out of here.”

“We can’t leave,” Wymack announced. “One of our number left three days ago and hasn’t returned. We can’t go on without him.” 

“You would sacrifice all of your people for one man?” Andrew challenged. “He was probably caught by the good people of Gresit in a back alley and stabbed. You’re wasting time.” He saw several of the other speakers flinch at his emotionless tone, but all Andrew’s mind could conjure were bad memories— his screaming cousins, smoking ruins, the cloying smell of burnt meat. 

“He was searching for something below the city,” Wymack continued. “How familiar are you with our legends?” 

Andrew had once travelled with a band of speakers for a season. He was very familiar with the legends.

“You let him go underground to chase ghosts, and now he’s gone.” Andrew summarized. “If I bring you his corpse before sundown, will you leave?”

Wymack looked back at his clan, huddled into the common room of this small abandoned house. 

“We’ll consider it.”

“Very well.” Andrew stood to leave, but one of the speakers spoke up as he reached the door.

“Wait! If he’s going to find Kevin, I’m going with him.” 

Behind him stood a woman with white hair and dark eyes. One of the other speakers grabbed her sleeve and hissed at her to drop it, but she brushed it off. 

“If Kevin’s hurt, he may need healing before we can get him back here. Plus,” she smiled gently at Wymack, “We all know how… stubborn he can be. I’ll go and make sure he’ll be back in one piece.”

The old man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. Just be safe, Renee.”

The woman nodded and joined Andrew by the door.

“I don’t need the dead weight,” He said.

“Oh, are you a doctor as well as a monster killer?” She grinned, and Andrew could see the steel behind her eyes, even as his mind showed him page upon page of Aaron’s discarded notes. “Wonders never cease.”

He shouldered the door open without another word. 

—

The ceiling above them shuddered, dirt and stone raining down as the cyclop’s cry reverberated through the room.

“Found your mystic soldier, have we?” Andrew hissed to the speaker woman as he ducked behind a pillar. Three entries in separate bestiaries and a letter from a long-dead ancestor cluttered his thoughts with the hunting habits and anatomy of the common cyclops. Andrew pushed them back, tightening his grip on his shield and readying another knife.

“Not quite, but look,” she pointed across the vaulted hall at one of the statues scattered across the floor. This one was in speaker’s robes, and had their hands clasped in front of them, likely frozen mid-spell. “That’s Kevin,” she whispered.

“Alright,” Andrew sighed. “If we kill it without the roof caving in on us all, that should do the trick.”

“There’s no other way? No cure without killing it?” Her voice was worried, but her body language was calm, collected, ready.

“None,” Andrew confirmed. 

“Very well.”

—

The man gasped to life, his skin quickly regaining color. 

“Kevin?” Renee called, her hands lighting up with magic as she inspected him for wounds. “Kevin, it’s Renee, just breathe for me.”

“Renee?” He sputtered, his lungs slowly finding a pattern. “There was— a monster—“

“It’s fine, Kevin, it’s gone.” She had a shockingly gentle bedside manner for a woman who had just felled a cyclops. She helped the man to his feet, pulling his arm across her shoulder to take some of his weight. 

“And it’s time we leave as well,” Andrew announced, heading towards the exit. 

“Wait!” cried the man. “I— I can’t leave yet. I have to find the sleeping soldier.”

Andrew gestured to the cooling cyclops corpse, the puddle of fluids beneath it slowly creeping across the floor. “Your soldier is bait for a cyclops. Ages of storytelling and idiots kept it fed. You and your clan will be just as dead unless you leave Gresit before sundown.” The leftover rush from the fight had loosened his tongue, and his voice creaked— he’d spoken more words today than the past three weeks combined. 

“You— who are you? What?” The man turned to Renee. “Renee, we can’t leave, I have to keep looking—“

Renee held up her free hand to stop him. “Kevin, you were just stone for three days. Your father thinks you’re dead. We’re going back, and then we’ll see what comes next.”

The man— Kevin— fell silent. Renee started to shuffle him towards the door, and Andrew begrudgingly slid under his shoulder to take some of the weight. 

The walk back to the surface was blessedly silent, apart from the creaks and shudders of the ancient stone tunnels around them. 

Once they reached the mausoleum that served as the entrance to the tunnels, Kevin began to speak again. 

“Thank you, Renee,” He started. “And you, Minyard.” Andrew rolled his eyes. Kevin was far from done. “I saw your crest earlier. What brings you to Gresit?” 

Andrew answered with a noncommittal grunt as they reached the iron gate of the cemetery. 

“I had thought you were all dead,” Kevin continued. “Are you here for the demons? They’ve come every night for a week. A third of the town has fled,” He went on, describing the situation that Andrew had already come to understand from his dealings with the prickly, suspicious people left in Gresit.

Kevin veered into a long winded lecture on the history of the city, the various Speaker legends surrounding it, and his opinions on the current church officials squatting in the cathedral as the trio made their way through the streets, back to the speaker’s camp. 

Andrew noted several townspeople watching them warily, but no one approached. 

The speakers had at least had the sense to put someone on watch outside the house, so Wymack was notified and came out as soon as they were seen. Andrew and Renee retreated to allow the two their reunion, though it was a quiet and somewhat awkward affair. 

“Thank you for helping,” Renee whispered to him. 

“I pay my debts,” Andrew responded.

—

“We can’t abandon these people!” Kevin shouted. “We can help them!”

“You can’t help anyone if they burn you alive,” Andrew gritted through his teeth. 

“If they think our leaving is what would be the best help, then maybe we should go,” Renee offered, frowning. “I don’t like it either, but I won’t die for these people, let alone at their hands.” 

“Leaving the city this close to sundown would be just as dangerous!” Another speaker interjected. “The demons are probably already at the walls!”

Wymack frowned as he looked out the window. “The decision might be made for us,” He grumbled.

Andrew pushes another speaker aside to see, and sure enough, outside the house Gresit’s own little mob was halfway to forming, a handful of citizens waiting awkwardly, pitchforks and all. He sighed. 

“Leave out the back,” He instructed. “I’ll distract them.” 

“I’ll help,” Kevin insisted. 

“Leave out the back,” Andrew countered. “Seeing you might agitate them.”

“They look plenty agitated,” Wymack muttered as he began shepherding his people towards the small exit in the back of the house. 

Renee put her hand on Kevin’s shoulder as Andrew opened the front door.

The people already present in the street froze at his exit, taking in the weapons holstered on his belt and the shield strung across his back. He shut the door behind him and sat down on the ground, watching them back.

After a tense pause for several minutes, a braver man called out: “Send those fucking speakers out here, or we’ll drag ‘em out ourselves!” 

Several of the others cheered and shouted similar sentiments.

Andrew sighed. “They aren’t coming out. Leave.”

More people were arriving as the sun dipped lower. 

A woman shouted: “Get them out of here before the beasts come!”

More cheers of agreement. Andrew unsheathed a long knife, and they died down. “Leave now, and go back home before sundown,” He warned.

A man with a torch stepped forward. “They’re the reason they’re coming! Send them off and help us fight!”

Another man cried, “Aren’t you the Minyard? Help us or get out! The demons probably want you, too!”

More cheering. Andrew stood. The man with the torch sneered at him and took another step closer. 

Andrew held out his knife casually. The man flinched.

“Leave,” said Andrew. “I don’t like to repeat myself.”

The man took yet another step closer, and Andrew sighed. Moving too fast for the man to react, Andrew struck out, driving his blade into the man’s shoulder. He dropped the torch, the flame spreading quickly on the dry grass as its wielder fell to his knees, screaming. 

Andrew looked at the rest of the crowd, which had taken a step back but seemed angrier than before. More people stepped out, carrying shovels and a few pitchforks. 

Andrew sighed and readied himself for a longer fight, when a sudden sting of energy filled the air followed a loud cracking noise, and where a crowd had been, all Andrew saw was blue. 

Blinking, he realized he was looking at a wall of ice, cleanly dividing him from the mob and extinguishing the small fire that had begun. He turned to face the house, and saw Kevin at the window, a shaking hand held up as he finished his magic. Renee opened the door and motioned him inside. Andrew sighed and followed.

“You’re more trouble than you’re worth,” Kevin huffed when he got inside. Renee nudged him hard with her elbow. 

“I could say the same about you,” replied Andrew as they shuffled out of the back exit and into an alleyway. 

The other speakers had made their escape, so it was empty for the moment. Andrew could hear the cries of the mob on the other side of the house. 

“This way,” He pushed the two speakers down a street that led them away from the house and towards less populated parts of town. 

Ducking into shadows whenever they heard other people, the three of them slowly picked their way towards the city walls as the sun went down. Kevin started leading the way at some point, although who he thought he was fooling, Andrew had no idea. 

When they reached the cemetery again, Renee and Andrew sighed in unison, but not surprise.

“No, Kevin,” Renee scolded like Kevin was a child asking for too many treats. “We have to leave.” Her point was punctuated by far-off screams. The demons had come over the wall.

Kevin motioned in the direction of the noise. “It’s too dangerous outside,” he declared. “If we’re underground we’ll be safer.” 

Andrew thought this was a stupid argument made by a man who was a statue a few hours ago, but couldn’t find it in himself to care, in the end. He would likely die at some point tonight, whether by demon or a stupid speaker with a death wish made little difference in the end.

Renee pinched the bridge of her nose. “We will not go exploring,” she announced. “We’ll stay in the hallways where we were this afternoon.”

Kevin nodded vigorously and unconvincingly as he swung the gate open and they hurried among the rows of headstones. The mausoleum looked almost nice in the twilight, but the inside remained as dusty and cobweb-filled as before. 

They made their way through the underground tunnels, moving by light of a glowing orb Renee summoned, and shortly came to a wide room with two exits. Renee came to a halt, and Andrew stopped beside her. 

“This will do,” she decided. Kevin began inspecting some of the very old, worn carvings on the walls. 

“Don’t touch anything, Kevin,” Renee called.

Kevin scoffed. “I’m not a complete fool,” he said, touching a piece of the carving that came out of the wall like a horn. The horn moved with an ominous click. The floor beneath their feet began to shake.

“Truly incredible,” sighed Renee moments before the floor gave in and they all fell into a giant hole.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
